Using Transcoding for Hidden Communication in IP Telephony

The paper presents a new steganographic method for IP telephony called TranSteg (Transcoding Steganography). Typically, in steganographic communication it is advised for covert data to be compressed in order to limit its size. In TranSteg it is the overt data that is compressed to make space for the steganogram. The main innovation of TranSteg is to, for a chosen voice stream, find a codec that will result in a similar voice quality but smaller voice payload size than the originally selected. Then, the voice stream is transcoded. At this step the original voice payload size is intentionally unaltered and the change of the codec is not indicated. Instead, after placing the transcoded voice payload, the remaining free space is filled with hidden data. TranSteg proof of concept implementation was designed and developed. The obtained experimental results are enclosed in this paper. They prove that the proposed method is feasible and offers a high steganographic bandwidth. TranSteg detection is difficult to perform when performing inspection in a single network localisation.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, 4 table

SecMon: End-to-End Quality and Security Monitoring System

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming a more available and popular way of communicating for Internet users. This also applies to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems and merging these two have already proven to be successful (e.g. Skype). Even the existing standards of VoIP provide an assurance of security and Quality of Service (QoS), however, these features are usually optional and supported by limited number of implementations. As a result, the lack of mandatory and widely applicable QoS and security guaranties makes the contemporary VoIP systems vulnerable to attacks and network disturbances. In this paper we are facing these issues and propose the SecMon system, which simultaneously provides a lightweight security mechanism and improves quality parameters of the call. SecMon is intended specially for VoIP service over P2P networks and its main advantage is that it provides authentication, data integrity services, adaptive QoS and (D)DoS attack detection. Moreover, the SecMon approach represents a low-bandwidth consumption solution that is transparent to the users and possesses a self-organizing capability. The above-mentioned features are accomplished mainly by utilizing two information hiding techniques: digital audio watermarking and network steganography. These techniques are used to create covert channels that serve as transport channels for lightweight QoS measurement's results. Furthermore, these metrics are aggregated in a reputation system that enables best route path selection in the P2P network. The reputation system helps also to mitigate (D)DoS attacks, maximize performance and increase transmission efficiency in the network.Comment: Paper was presented at 7th international conference IBIZA 2008: On Computer Science - Research And Applications, Poland, Kazimierz Dolny 31.01-2.02 2008; 14 pages, 5 figure

HIGH CAPACITY AND OPTIMIZED IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHY TECHNIQUE BASED ON ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

The tremendous development of digital technology, it is mandatory to address the security while transmitting information over network in a way that observer couldn’t depict it. Measures to be taken to provide the security by establishing hidden communication using steganography principle which is help to camouflage the secret information in some carrier file such as text, image, audio and video. In this era of hidden data communication, image becoming an effective tool on account of their frequency, capability and accuracy. Image steganography uses an image as a carrier medium to hide the secret data. The main motive of this article is that the uses the combination of frequency domain and optimization method inorder to increasing in robustness. In this article, Integer Wavelet transform is performed into the host image and coefficients have been transformed. ACO optimization algorithm is used to find the optimal coefficients where to hide the data. Furthermore, sample images and information having been demonstrated which proved the increased robustness as well as high level of data embedding capacity

Designing Secure and Survivable Stegosystems

Steganography, the art and science of carrying out hidden communication, is an emergingsub-discipline of information security. Unlike cryptography, steganography conceals the existenceof a secret message by embedding it in an innocuous container digital media, thereby enablingunobstrusive communication over insecure channels. Detection and extraction of steganographiccontents is another challenge for the information security professional and this activity iscommonly known as steganalysis. Recent progress in steganalysis has posed a challenge fordesign and development of stegosystems with high levels of security and survivability. In thispaper, different strategies have been presented that can be used to escape detection and foilan eavesdropper having high technical capabilities as well as adequate infrastructure. Based onthe strength and weaknesses of current steganographic schemes, ideas have been progressedto make detection and destruction of hidden information more difficult

Sharing Secret Colour Images with Embedded Visual Cryptography Using the Stamping Algorithm and OTP Procedure

Finding a way to ensure the safety of media is becoming increasingly common in the modern world as digital media usage increases. Visual cryptography (VC) offers an efficient method for sending images securely. Images that have been protected using visual encryption can be decoded using features of human vision. Emails are not a highly safe method of exchanging private data because someone else can quickly weaken the content. In the visual cryptography technique, we presented for colour pictures, the divided shares are enclosed in additional pictures using stamping. Using a random number generator, the shares are created. Visual cryptography schemes (VCS) are a method of encoding pictures that conceals the secret information which is present in images. A secret image is encrypted using a straightforward visual cryptography technique by splitting it into n shares, and the stamping operation is carried out by overlapping k shares. It can be beneficial for hiding a secret image. There is a chance that employing cryptography for information exchange could cause security problems because the process of decryption of simple visual cryptographic algorithms can be completed by the human eye. To address this issue, we are using the OTP procedure. In the past, static ID and passwords were employed, making them susceptible to replay and eavesdropping attacks. One Time Password technology, which generates a unique password each time, is utilized to solve this issue. The suggested approach strengthens the security of the created transparencies by applying an envelope to each share and employing a stamping technique to address security vulnerabilities that the previous methods had, such as pixel expansion and noise

Data Hiding and Its Applications

Data hiding techniques have been widely used to provide copyright protection, data integrity, covert communication, non-repudiation, and authentication, among other applications. In the context of the increased dissemination and distribution of multimedia content over the internet, data hiding methods, such as digital watermarking and steganography, are becoming increasingly relevant in providing multimedia security. The goal of this book is to focus on the improvement of data hiding algorithms and their different applications (both traditional and emerging), bringing together researchers and practitioners from different research fields, including data hiding, signal processing, cryptography, and information theory, among others

Methods for Information Hiding in Open Social Networks

This paper summarizes research on methods for information hiding in Open Social Networks. The first contribution is the idea of StegHash, which is based on the use of hashtags in various open social networks to connect multimedia files (such as images, movies, songs) with embedded hidden data. The proof of concept was implemented and tested using a few social media services. The experiments confirmed the initial idea. Next, SocialStegDisc was designed as an application of the StegHash method by combining it with the theory of filesystems. SocialStegDisc provides the basic set of operations for files, such as creation, reading or deletion, by implementing the mechanism of a linked list. It establishes a new kind of mass-storage characterized by unlimited data space, but limited address space where the limitation is the number of the hashtags' unique permutations. The operations of the original StegHash method were optimized by trade-offs between the memory requirements and computation time. Features and limitations were identified and discussed. The proposed system broadens research on a completely new area of threats in social networks